Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Quotes: Charm. Chaucer. Chess. Chicago.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

CharmCharm 214 All charming people depend on the appreciation of others. "All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others." Cyril Connolly. 1938. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms. [This statement is an example of an ambiguous statement, the result of a simple preposition, "of." Does it mean that charm is dependent on the charmers' appreciating the people around them? Or does it mean that the charmers are dependent on those around them giving the charmers their appreciation?RayS.]ChaucerChaucer 32 Chaucer's tales exactly fit the characters of their tales' tellers. "Dryden on Chaucer: The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different educations, humors, and callings that each of them would be improper in any other mouth." John Dryden. “Chaucer.” 1700. Gross, ed. Essays.

ChessChess 142 Chess has no replica in real life. Hearn: "The thing about chess that used to intrigue me, and ended by being just boring, is that there’s nothing remotely like it in life." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Chess 143 Like a game of chess, he was maneuvered by his boss. "Hearn wanted to avoid a discussion [about chess with the General]…he was weary of being maneuvered by the General." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

ChicagoChicago 62 A negative view of Chicago. "Chicago: this vicious, stinking zoo, this mean-grinning, mace-smelling boneyard of a city: an elegant rockpile of a monument to everything cruel and stupid and corrupt in the human spirit." Hunter S. Thompson. Portable Curmudgeon.